Falmouth college removes president

The board of directors of the National Graduate School of Quality Management replaced the school's founding president and chief executive this week after months of scrutiny following revelations that he falsified his credentials, awarded invalid degrees and earned $730,000 annually in salary and benefits.

FALMOUTH — The board of directors of the National Graduate School of Quality Management replaced the school's founding president and chief executive this week after months of scrutiny following revelations that he falsified his credentials, awarded invalid degrees and earned $730,000 annually in salary and benefits.

"In light of the upcoming NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) survey this September, which will be happening somewhat earlier than originally anticipated, the board has decided to restructure the responsibilities of NGS leadership," board Chairman Thomas C. Kneavel wrote in an internal memo sent to employees Monday.

"Dr. Robert Gee will relinquish his administrative role to focus on teaching and other activities related to the NEASC visit," Kneavel said in the memo.

Board member John H. Bridges III will serve as the school's interim president and CEO in Gee's administrative absence, Kneavel's memo said. The board has not said whether Gee may eventually return as president.

"I think this is a clear indication that the board takes this situation seriously and wants to assure that it is both fulfilling its fiduciary responsibility and makes sure that the school maintains its accreditation," Diana Pisciotta, a spokeswoman for the NGS board, said in a phone interview Wednesday evening.

No one answered when a Times reporter rang the doorbell at Gee's Sippewissett Road home at about 8:15 Wednesday morning. A message left on his cellphone Wednesday evening was not returned.

News of Gee's ouster as president came as a shock to John Rabbit, who served on the school's board from its founding until about 2006.

"I'm surprised because (Gee) always said he was president for life," Rabbit said Wednesday.

Rabbit, who said Gee looked at NGS as "his school" and expected board members to follow his lead in all decisions, added that Bridges' position at the helm could improve NGS' image after a flurry of media reports surrounding Gee's questionable practices and qualifications.

NGS began operating in Falmouth in 1994, according to records kept by the secretary of state's corporations division. It offers doctoral, master's and bachelor's degree programs in fields including homeland security and quality systems management, according to its website.

The school teaches many of its classes to students around the world online but is not permitted to offer online courses to students in Massachusetts.

The school operated quietly on Jones Road for years but came under scrutiny this winter when it sought tax-exempt status for properties it bought on Onawa Lane in 2009.

If NGS loses its NEASC accreditation or is placed on probation, Rabbit said, the school would likely lose corporate customers, including the U.S. Coast Guard, United Technologies and others that offer NGS courses to their employees at their grounds or online.

"If the school loses its accreditation, it's done," he said.

The latest revelations about NGS follow other inconsistencies unveiled about the school in recent months.

Last month, a staffer in the registrar's office of Harvard University's Graduate School of Education told a Times reporter that Gee attended the school but never graduated. NGS student handbooks for several academic years listed Gee as holding either a master's or doctorate degree from Harvard.

The school's current handbook on its website previously said Gee held a master's degree from Harvard, among other degrees, but now says only that he holds a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Ottawa and a bachelor's in English from Lafayette College. An employee at the University of Ottawa confirmed that Gee received a Ph.D. there.

Rabbit said news that Gee never graduated from Harvard surprised him, especially because Gee used to wear the Harvard colors during NGS graduation ceremonies.

In 2009, NGS received a $2.64 million tax-exempt bond from Bank of America, according to records provided by MassDevelopment, an agency that works with public- and private-sector companies to facilitate bond agreements.

The school used the proceeds to purchase a three-house residential property complex on Onawa Lane in Falmouth, documents show. The nonprofit school purchased the properties for a total of $3.36 million, Falmouth assessing department records show.

Gee's salary and benefits amounted to $732,891 in 2009, according to a 2010 filing with the Internal Revenue Service. His wife, Aileen Waters Gee, earned $107,349 in salary and benefits as the school's "VP Reg Affairs" that year.

A contract from 2006 guarantees Gee's continued employment until 2023, according to documents from G.T. Reilly & Co., the school's auditor.

A sign near the three upscale houses off Quonset Road reads "National Graduate School Oyster Pond Campus." The school is fighting the town's refusal to exempt it from about $25,000 in property taxes and has appealed to the state Appellate Tax Board.

The NGS board of directors lent Gee $41,900 in 2006 for the purchase of two timeshare units at the Virgin Islands Resort on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to G.T. Reilly & Co. records.

There also appear to be issues with some of the degrees the school has granted. The school awarded baccalaureate degrees to civilian students at Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod for the past two years but is only permitted to grant master's degrees in total quality management and honorary doctor of letters degrees in Massachusetts.

Francesca Purcell, an associate commissioner for academic policy at the Department of Higher Education, said the state is looking into the school.